IFS delimiter containing a space?

Asked Mar 25 '20 at 13:28

Active Mar 25 '20 at 13:30

Viewed 11 times

Is it possible to set the IFS to " ,"? Thats a space and comma.

If I have it just as the comma I get this

genres="platform, action adventure, puzzle"
IFS=$','
for g in $genres
do
echo "$g"
done
platform
 action adventure
 puzzle

If I try setting it with the space it splits at single spaces also.

genres="platform, action adventure, puzzle"
IFS=$' ,'    
for g in $genres
do
echo "$g"
done
platform
action
adventure
puzzle

I'm sure I could clean the leading whitespace before or after the loop, but why can't I do it with the delimiter?

edited Mar 25 '20 at 13:30

Robert Harvey

asked Mar 25 '20 at 13:28

Chris

1

The "why" is that `IFS` is a *collection* of characters, each of which is individually a delimiter. – Charles Duffy Mar 25 '20 at 13:32
1

No, each character in IFS is parsed separately. Also `$','` is equal to `','` and `$' ,'` is just `' ,'`. – KamilCuk Mar 25 '20 at 13:33
OK thanks guys. I'll just clean the array before. – Chris Mar 25 '20 at 13:34

0 Answers0